Fu lantern

Chinese people hang red lanterns in Chinese New Year to celebrate the Spring Festival. When these big red lanterns are hanging up, we feel particularly pleased. It helps to make the atmosphere more festive and creates lots of good luck for the New Year.

We normally use the same design and it’s beautiful but I wanted to try to design a new version of the Fu lantern to make this Chinese New Year in London more special.

I like the Islamic collections here. I studied this style and my new Fu lantern combines Islamic and Chinese design. It is also similar in style to the panels seen in European stained glass.I wrote down the whole process of this project. As for any other product design, the workflow is similar. From sketch – first rendering idea – refine the idea – technical drawing – test parts to final product.

Lao Jianhua is a product designer currently living and working in Shanghai, China. After working for several major Chinese design companies, Lao opened his own design studio, J Y DESIGN Shanghai, in 2008. He was the V&A's first international Museum Resident and was at the Museum between November 2008 and April 2009, helping the Museum to celebrate the 2008 Year of China.

We have a thriving and exciting programme of artists in residence here at the Museum, with at least two practitioners inhabiting our studios at any given time.

Here we show the process of being an artist or designer in residence here at the V&A, with behind-the-scenes insights and stories from Residency Co-ordinator, Laura Southall, and the artists themselves.